Mockingbird
by xxPunkRockxx
Summary: Hush little baby, don't say a word...this will all end very, very soon. Not a one-shot. Sasori & Sakura
1. Prologue

**- Mockingbird - **

x - x - x - x

_Hush little baby, don't say a word  
_

_Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird  
_

_And if that mockingbird don't sing  
_

_Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring  
_

x - x - x - x

* * *

**Disclaimer: ** I own nothing but my writing.

* * *

The chill in the air was indescribably distinct; something eerie drifting about, as if looking for something that could not be found.

The pink-haired girl looked about her, attempting to distinguish anything abnormal, yet was failing to find any abnormalities.

Everything looked...fine.

Yet something felt so wrong. It was inexplicable, but the density in the air held a grasp on her, making it harder to breathe than usual.

Something was _wrong_.

"Sakura," a voice called casually from behind her, pulling her from her thoughts and causing her to whirl around rapidly.

An unexpected gasp escaped her, leaving her mouth ajar a bit.

"S-Sasuke?"

How long had it been since he had been home? Here, in Konohagakure? How long?

"Hai."

It was completely surreal; the sight of her former teammate and object of her affection standing before her with a glistening in his eyes she had never seen before. It felt like a dream, or maybe just a mirage.

Uchiha Sasuke, back in his home village of Konoha.

"Sasuke!"

It was a hushed cry that escaped her, and without thinking Sakura moved toward him until she stood less than a foot from the boy she could no longer say she recognized. Yes, physically he was the same aside from being somewhat taller and a bit more muscular, but personality wise it was like peering into a stranger's eyes.

"Sakura..."

Her arms slid around his toned torso thoughtlessly, and she snuggled into his broad chest. Nothing in a long while had felt so reassuring.

"Sakura."

The tone of voice changed, not just a different mood, but as if the words fell from the lips of an entirely different person.

"Sasuke?"

Looking up at him, she noticed a difference in the boy's normally obsidian eyes; there was a red glint, but it was dull, unlike his sharingan. Before her, his face began to morph, forming a more distinct jawline and a sharper nose. The shape of his eyes narrowed and darkened, and his pitch black hair began to lighten to red.

How? What was...?

The face was taking shape before her, becoming more recognizable. Pushing herself off the figure that too was changing, Sakura stumbled back and stared in horror at the person standing before her.

"Sakura. It's been so long."

Akasuna no Sasori.

"You...!"

"Me."

A devilish smirk crawled on to his lips, and the man before her tilted his head and narrowed his eyes further.

"It's been far too long, Sakura. I've been waiting to return the favor - everything you did to me, the time I lost here. There was so much I could have _done_, and you ruined it all."

"You deserved it!" She cried, her shrill voice piercing the calm night around them. Akasuna no Sasori had been _dead_, and yet there he stood before her, looking sadistic and disheveled as if he had just pulled himself from his grave and was seeking blood.

If Sakura was not mistaken, he _was _seeking blood.

_"I've been waiting to return the favor - everything you did to me."_

Sakura was gawking, astounded by the undead man's presence before her.

"Is it such a shock, Sakura? Or do you not believe what the Akatsuki is capable of?"

"You didn't bring yourself back, you liar!" She shouted at him, eyes blazing with fury. "That...that _coward _brought you back to fight for him! And yet you're taking the time to come seek vengeance in death?"

Sasori's skin was a disgusting gray, faded in some spots more than others, and peeling in places as well. As the moonlight poured down, it was then that Sakura took notice that his once-glistening hair was matted and splitting, looking more like straw or string than anything else.

Sasori was in fact dead, and standing before her, ready to take her with him back to the grave.

"Come, Sakura, don't be difficult. You and I _belong together_ - we can bask in the fires of hell with one another for the rest of eternity."

"Hell is exactly where you're going, and I'll gladly send you back!" She screeched, baring her teeth in an animistic snarl. Balling her fists, Sakura prepared for a battle.

Sasori's laughter swirled around her like a painstaking nightmare.

"Sakura, Sakura - you don't get it, do you? You cannot fight me. You cannot fight what isn't there."

"W-what?"

The night around her twisted and warped, leading to a black and violet abyss she had never once laid eyes on. What kind of a jutsu was this?

"Sakura - come with me. You and I can rule the fires of hell together."

Sasori's voice was echoing, bouncing off the walls she could not see in what appeared to be an endless room.

"No!" She screamed, her voice echoing as well, followed by the sound of shattering glass. "I won't."

Sasori had vanished and abruptly appeared behind her. His cold, clammy hands grasped her face from behind, tilting it up to look into his lifeless eyes.

"You will, Sakura. Sooner or later, you will be here with me."

She looked frightfully at the man, watching him begin to snicker again and eventually cackle. As the noise built up around her in a relentless whirlwind, the room spun and colors that were not there a minute ago began to mold with the ones that already were.

Her eyes opened, staring up at the velvety night sky above her head. She was on her knees in the street, dirt clumps and pebbles pressing into the skin on her lower legs and palms.

What had happened?

* * *

_I know I never finished **Eternity**, but I could not resist starting another Sasori and Sakura fic. In all honesty, I'm not sure where this one is going, but I had to start something more twisted than the last._

_My inspiration? I happened to have Mockingbird, the original children's song, stuck in my head and decided it could easily be turned into something rather screwed up and vile. Thus, this was born.  
_

_Not to mention I've recently gotten into Durarara! and happen to find Orihara Izaya completely amazing. If you know who that is, you know he has a bit of a distorted perception of reality and might as well be out of his damned mind (:  
_

_I love screwed up characters. They are just so...wonderful x)  
_


	2. Chapter 1

**- Mockingbird: _Chapter One_ **_-_

_"Ich fang mit dem regen an zu wein _

_(I start crying with the rain)_

_Die dunkelheit umhüllt mein Herz, _

_(Darkness engulfs my heart)  
_

_empfinde nur den kalten Schmerz._

_(I only feel the cold pain)"  
_

- Anna Blue, **So Allein**

* * *

Waking up to the sun pooling in through her slightly-opened curtains only enhanced the feeling of being hungover.

In all honesty, Haruno Sakura had been perfectly sober when she had fallen asleep the night before; it was simply experiencing such an odd phenomena, the swirling colors, and the maniacal laughter of a dead man that had made her head pound and her stomach churn. The physical symptoms had continued on into the morning.

With a groan she pulled herself from bed, irritably kicking the covers as they twisted around her long legs and held her captive. Free after a slight struggle, Sakura stumbled across the room as a result of weak legs and hazy vision.

Once she had made it to the kitchen of her apartment, she clutched the counter as she wandered the small space preparing some herbal tea. It was a simplistic remedy, and she needed something.

Anything, really.

Sakura had experienced hangovers in the past, and none were overly pretty. This, however, felt quite worse than a majority of her previous encounters with the mornings-after of excessive partying.

Maybe a drink would have helped her after all.

The kettle whistled as the water came to a proper boil. Turning off the stove, she pleaded with the otherworldly forces that her disorientated state would not cause her to burn herself with the scalding water. Even if she did, Sakura was able to heal it, but it would be easier to not deal with the hassle.

Steam drifted up as she poured the water into a small cup and swirled a tea bag around in it lightly. The apartment felt rather bright despite nearly every curtain being drawn and all lights aside from the bathroom off. Sakura sipped her tea and breathed in the scent of the warm liquid, trying desperately to let go of the uncomfortable feelings within her.

Last night had felt like a bad trip. Not only would an actual hangover have been better, but whacked-out dreams via acid or ecstasy would have been preferred as well. How the vision of one man, dead nonetheless, could make her feel so shitty was something the skilled medic nin had no reasonable explanation for.

She was a medic, not a psychologist.

It irked her, not being able to understand what had happened the evening prior. Everything had been seemingly normal, and all of a sudden she was in some sickening alternate dimension where Uchiha Sasuke's lovely face warped and melted into the sadistic face of Akasuna no Sasori. Those eyes red as blood, looking fragile and broken like the glass they had probably been made of, haunted her thoughts.

Sasori - rather, that vision of him - looked like something straight out of a zombie movie. His skin was gray and peeling, eyes pushed back a bit into his head, hair matted and falling out in some places.

Grotesque. That was the only word Sakura could muster to efficiently describe the sight of the long-dead Akatsuki member.

While musing on the presumable hallucinations she'd experienced the night before, Sakura winced in visible pain as her phone began to ring. Snatching it up off the counter behind her, she answered it without even checking the ID.

"What?" She growled irritably into the phone, not caring who it was on the other end. There was an awkward silence for a moment as the other person fumbled with their phone.

"That's a way to greet a person when they call you," Yamanaka Ino's voice chided through her speaker. "What crawled into your bed last night and bit you?"

"Nothing," Sakura mumbled, lowering her tone a bit and sipping her tea with an effort at calmness. "What brings you to call me this early?"

"This early?" Ino repeated, laughing. "Forehead, it's nearly noon."

Sakura craned her neck to look at the clock; Ino was right, it was approximately 11:51 a.m.

"Well...I tend to take advantage of my days off. Time doesn't really matter at the moment."

Ino snorted in a semi-unladylike manner before continuing.

"It's your day off and you're hiding in your apartment? Come on Sakura, do something _productive_. I work nearly every day, just the same as you, and still manage to be out and about by the time midday comes around."

Sakura sipped her tea and mumbled incoherently into the cup.

"You and I are two very different people, pig," Sakura reminded her friend, searching for excuses to be a bum. Of course, Ino would find a way to tear apart those excuses, and probably win her argument.

"Come on forehead girl. Get your ass dressed and primped; we'll go to lunch."

Sakura sighed heavily, making it quite audible for Ino to hear the disdain dripping off of her.

"Fine."

"Good," Ino cooed triumphantly. "I'll meet you in town in twenty."

Before she could further her protests, the phone clicked off on the other end.

Ino really was a pain in the ass.

xxxxxxxxxx

Ino really didn't understand the predicament Sakura was in; then again, her friend wasn't suffering hallucinations that led to ill sleep and mock hangovers.

"You look like shit," Ino dropped bluntly, eying the bags under Sakura's eyes and pale complexion. "Party too hard last night?"

Sakura was still squinting from the radiant sunlight bathing the village, not to mention Ino's bright and cheery complexion.

Quite the opposite of her borderline ghostly one.

"I wouldn't say that," Sakura grumbled, pushing aside a strand of untamed hair.

"Oh well, we all have our days. Let's get some food in you - hopefully you'll look better after."

Ino had a way of being completely honest, but to a point where most people knew not to take it. There was a right way and a wrong way to go about saying things, and while she knew better, Ino always chose the wrong way.

_Bitch..._

The sushi bar wasn't the first thing Sakura would have thought to go to for what she was considering breakfast, but it worked. Seaweed and rice sounded...decent.

The two sat in near silence while they waited for their food, and once it came, Ino wasted no time taking to her meal. Daintily, at that.

Sakura stared at the food in front of her as if she expected some sort of maniacal creature to crawl out from the middle of it and jump down her throat. It was rather a disturbing idea, but after the previous night, Sakura's mind still had yet to be in perfect condition.

"What's the matter with you?" Ino inquired, waving her chopsticks dramatically. "I swear, you'd better not be experimenting with drugs."

"I'm not, thank you." Sakura bit back the impulse to add _mom _at the end of that sentence. Ino was motherly, but not the sort of motherly a person would readily take to.

God knows Ino's "mother" complex drove Shikamaru nuts. It consisted more of nagging than concern.

"Then what the hell is wrong?"

Sakura sighed and stretched her neck, listening to the satisfying crack it made when she twisted at the right angle.

"I just...didn't sleep well last night."

Ino scoffed.

"That doesn't mean you have to sit here like some tragedy has befallen you. Look, cheer up; it's a nice day, you don't work, and you're in good company."

Yeah, good company. That's exactly what Sakura considered Ino to be majority of the time.

"I suppose," Sakura hesitantly agreed, picking up a sushi roll and eying it suspiciously before popping it into her mouth.

"You had better," Ino remarked snottily, wearing her queen bitch expression while finishing off her plate. "I didn't drag you out of your apartment to watch you stare at the ground and live in your own head."

_I'd prefer to be anywhere _but _my head._

"Yeah..."

xxxxxxxxxx

The sun was still high in the sky, although it was gradually drifting into the late afternoon. Ino had headed into work, leaving Sakura to wander Konohagakure's inner city by herself.

The feeling as the night before was creeping over her, making her wary of everyone around. Sakura typically didn't give in to paranoia, but that vision, hallucination, whatever it was.

It was haunting.

A sickening feeling pulled at the pit of her stomach, making her look around uncomfortably. One part of her wanted to head back to her apartment and hide out there, and the other part of her wanted to stay in the company of the people mulling around her.

Being alone to her own devices right now sounded like the least promising idea. Last night was something Haruno Sakura had absolutely no desire to re-live.

A light breeze blew, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as chills shot down her spine. The temperature outside was rather warm today, and even with a slightly cooler breeze, it wasn't likely to have elicited that reaction from her.

There was something in the air that she couldn't see, but she could feel it like a heavy fog weighing down her mind.

Something was lurking around her, waiting to emerge.

The thought made her more unnerved than ever.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews thus far!**

**I know my chapters have a tendency to be on the short side, and hopefully I can rid myself of that habit during the process of this story. I'd like to be able to make it more lengthy and detailed without dragging on.  
**

**_Please _continue to _review_.  
**

**I love hearing what you think!  
**


	3. Chapter 2

**- Mockingbird: _Chapter Two_ -**

_"Just stuck hollow and alone, and the fault is my own."_

- Linkin Park

* * *

When had night become such a frightening time? The moon was aglow in the evening sky, a white blur intertwined with a navy-black velvet. Sakura had never feared darkness before, but all of a sudden she did. It felt like a nightmare, as if the delusion she'd recently experienced had been real. In her mind, it had been. As far as that apparition being a physical entity?

Highly unlikely...right?

Apparition. Sakura mused on the word as if whatever she had seen - what she _believed _she had seen, anyway - was a ghost. It was more of an illusion, a mirage; the sort of thing people saw when they became dehydrated in the middle of a desert. The only difference was it had been in the middle of the village at as ordinary a time as any. Had she developed something medically wrong with her in that time?

Also unlikely. Sakura couldn't remember displaying symptoms of any disease, physical or mental. Yet it felt as if her sanity was deteriorating after twenty-four hours and one chance encounter with...

With _what_?

At first it had been Sasuke, and then it had been Akasuna no Sasori standing before her. Sakura wanted to believe it had been nothing more than some mind trick, perhaps even an enemy ninja with too much knowledge about her past and personal life using an illusory tactic. That moment though...it had felt so _real_.

Then again, that's what genjutsu was, if it happened to be such. Sakura sighed, pressing her fingertips into her temples in a feigning attempt to alleviate stress. She was spending far too much time musing on something that was for the most part, irrelevant.

Walking from her room into the kitchen, Sakura stopped, struggling to remember what it was she had been needing in there. Ah, tea. Grabbing a cup out of the cabinet and prepping the water, an audible thud coming from her bedroom caused her to almost scold herself with water.

Standing frozen with a mixture of shock and fear, Sakura eyed the hallway that led to her room. As far as she could tell, there was nothing alarming there, but it would be foolish to not go check and see what had caused the noise in her room.

Lacking any form of weaponry, she reached into a drawer and drew out a large knife, bracing it in her hands like a fearful housewife. Disregarding the now boiling water, she crept back towards her bedroom, hoping that the situation would be less than serious - an imbalanced belonging having fallen over, perhaps an animal having gotten in somehow.

Reaching the door to her room, she stood with her back pressed against the wall beside it. Silence. It was as if the sounds she had heard only moments ago were also figments of her imagination.

What was the lesser of two evils? Finding a foe lurking in your own house, or discovering your only enemy was in your head? Either way it was a pretty miserable situation, in Sakura's opinion.

It was then, over the faint sound of her breathing, that she could hear it; footsteps. A lump formed in her throat and her breath hitched, knife shaking in her hands as if she had never fought in a war before, let alone a minor confrontation. Nonetheless, she was nervous as hell, and it couldn't be stopped.

Inhaling sharply, she braced herself for the worst and pivoted the corner and screamed.

"You _asshole_!"

Standing there in her room was an out-of-sorts blonde boy, rubbing his head where her fist had just collided.

"Ow..."

"What the hell would give you the idea to creep into my apartment like that you dumbass?" Sakura cried, glaring down at the man sitting on her floor.

"I didn't mean anything bad by it!" Naruto yelled back, sitting cross-legged on her bedroom floor like a child. "You didn't have to hit me!"

"You were in my _room _without _explanation_," Sakura hissed, waving the knife pointedly in his face. "I could have stabbed you, idiot!"

"Put down the knife!" Naruto stammered, waving his hands dramatically. "It's me, you know it's me! Put down the knife! Please?"

Sakura stood perfectly still, hip cocked and knife pointed directly at her friend's face. When she gave no reply, Naruto hastily climbed to his feet and staggered backward about. Sakura found she was still weary of the figure standing in the middle of her bedroom, even if he did show every accurate characteristic and mannerism of her challenged blonde friend. Momentarily hesitating, she put the knife down firmly on her nightstand.

"Why are you in my room?" the pink-haired woman inquired impatiently, once again narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the man standing before her.

"Sasuke," Naruto muttered pointedly, still rubbing his head. "He's been sighted in Konohagakure. I wanted to come warn you to look out for yourself; I don't know what he's back for, and I'm pretty certain no one else does either. I just didn't want you ending up in a bad situation if it came to that."

Sakura's stomach lurched violently, and for a moment she felt light-headed. _Sasuke_? The last time she had seen Uchiha Sasuke his sadistically handsome face had warped into an ever-more sadistic and vile one belonging to a member of the Akatsuki she had long presumed to be dead. No...it could not be that delusion had actually been _real_?

"Sakura?" Naruto asked carefully, gently reaching out and touching her arm, breaking her from her thoughts. "I know, it's shocking, but I wasn't going to leave you out of the loop on this."

"No...thank you for telling me," Sakura answered, trying to keep her composure. Naruto stood watching her for a minute before turning back to the window he had stumbled in through.

"Just take care of yourself, okay? Don't let your guard down."

"I won't."

After another drawn-out moment, Naruto was gone back into the blackening night. Stumbling over to the edge of her bed, Sakura sat down and nervously picked up the glinting kitchen knife, examining her reflection in its blade. The feeling in her stomach was absolutely wretched, but she expected no less after what she had encountered; a moment she had believed to be nothing more than mere delusion or trickery.

_No_, she told herself, albeit in an unsure manner. _It isn't like that. That's not the case..._

_Maybe I should call Ino._

Sakura stood up from her bed, grasping the knife tight in her hand, ready for a fight. Heading back into the kitchen where the water for her tea had boiled over, she ignored the mess for the moment and hurriedly snatched up her cell phone. Flipping it open, she found she already had a message; perhaps Ino had been thinking the same.

The number wasn't saved into her contacts, however, nor was it one she recognized. Then it wasn't Ino, or anyone else she kept in regular contact with, for that matter.

_Sakura - it's been too long. Looking forward to seeing you. Sasuke._

In that moment, her vision blurred, and Sakura found she had to make a desperate grab at the counter to steady herself. Abruptly she felt ill, between the dizziness and the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

Last time she had seen Sasuke, he had turned into someone else.

No. No, no, no. It just couldn't be.

Reading over the message once more, she slammed the phone back down on the counter and leaned on it fully, attempting to steady herself and ease her ragged breathing. There was a decent likelihood that the situation was not what she had an inkling it might be, right?

At least, she was praying that it was something else.

* * *

**Very, very, _very _delayed update. I have a bad tendency to do things like this; create a story, then disappear for a while.**

**Hopefully you all liked this chapter well enough. I'm too lazy to proofread right now - it's 2:30 in the morning here and I'm sure some of you understand how much effort that would take.  
**

**Reviews are much appreciated, as always~  
**


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